Thermal Comfort Analyses in Naturally Ventilated Buildings

Global current requirement is to increase thermal comfort in residential and non residential buildings. A field survey was accomplished in a naturally ventilated university classroom in Bucharest, Romania, in winter and spring. Comfort parameters were measured and comfort questionnaires were distributed to the students. Questions were related to thermal sensation of the occupants. This paper compares the experimental results with the occupant’s response. It analyzes the variation of Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percent of Dissatisfied (PPD) with temperature. It is made a comparison between PMV and thermal sensation vote. The results show PMV values different from Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) values which means there is a poor approximation of indoor comfort. In conclusion the comfort parameters should be reviewed and should be proposed other evaluation methods. Possible explanations are discussed in relation with thermal regime of the buildings.